When we consider that in the time of Athenagoras,
or very soon after, there were three authors living
who spoke of the Gospels in the way we have shown,
and quoted them in the way we shall now show, why assign
these quotations to defunct Gospels of whose contents
we are perfectly ignorant, when we have them substantially
in Gospels which occupied the same place in the Church
then as now?

NOTE ON SECTION XIX.

I have asserted that the three authors, Tertullian,
Clement of Alexandria, and Irenaeus, all flourishing
before the close of the second century, quote the
four Gospels, if anything, more frequently than most
modern Christian authors do. I append, in proof
of this, some of the references in these authors to
the first two or three chapters of our present Gospels.

IRENAEUS.

Matthew, i.

“And Matthew, too, recognizing
one and the same Jesus Christ, exhibiting his
generation as a man from the Virgin ... says, ’The
book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son
of David, the son of Abraham.’ Then,
that he might free our mind from suspicion regarding
Joseph, he says, ’But the birth of Christ
was on this wise: when His mother was espoused,’”
&c. (iii. xvi.)

Then he proceeds to quote and remark upon the whole
of the remainder of the chapter.

“Matthew again relates
His generation as a man.” For remainder,
see
page 128.

“For Joseph is shown
to be the son of Joachim and Jeconiah, as also
Matthew sets forth in his
pedigree.” (iii. 21, 9.)

“Born Emmanuel of the Virgin.
To this effect they testify that before Joseph
had come together with Mary, while she therefore remained
in virginity, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost.” (iii. 21, 4.)

“Then again Matthew,
when speaking of the angel, says, ’The angel
of
the Lord appeared to Joseph
in sleep.’ (iii. 9, 2.)

“The angel said to him
in sleep, ’Fear not to take to thee Mary, thy
wife’” (and proceeding
with several other verses of the same
chapter). (iv. 23, l.)

Matthew, ii.

“But Matthew says that
the Magi, coming from the East, exclaimed,
’For we have seen His
star in the East, and are come to worship
Him.’” (iii. 9,
2.)

“And that having been led by the
star unto the house of Jacob to Emmanuel, they
showed, by those gifts which they offered, who it was
that was worshipped; myrrh, because it was He who
should die and be buried for the human race; gold,
because He was a king,” &c., &c. (iii. 9,
2)

“He, since He was Himself
an infant, so arranging it that human
infants should be martyrs,
slain, according to the Scriptures, for
the sake of Christ.”
(iii. 16, 4.)